Little Wonders
by Suicidal Mickey Mouse
Summary: After tragedy strikes, the Hardy family is finally starting to move on. But a special delivery forces them to reopen closed wounds, and find that maybe, what they've been searching for has been in front of them the whole time. Frank/Nancy.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, any characters associated with them, or any pop culture references that I may choose to include.

Author's notes: This is an idea that's been with me for a while, inspired partly by an episode of Dharma and Greg. What I've done to make it suit the characters and their lives a bit more, should be relatively obvious.

Age wise for the story, I'm placing the Nancy/Frank aged characters at 24, making the Joe aged characters at 23. And although most people aren't that concerned with their ages the Hardy parents and Carson are in their early fifties, between 52 and 54.

Prologue

Fenton Hardy had very few official household duties. He took the garbage to end of the driveway every week, was responsible for maintaining the state of his office space, and carving the meats for the various holiday meals. Other than that, how he helped around the house was really at his discretion.

Unofficially, Fenton took it upon himself to be the one to answer any midnight phone calls or knocks at the door. It was his experience that phone calls and knocks at the door in the middle of the night rarely brought good news, and if something were to have happened to any members of the Hardy family, Fenton wanted to be the first to know.

This was why he found himself answering the door at two in the morning on a January morning, bracing himself for the worst; Frank and Joe weren't actually on a case, but the recent weather had been such that the roads were icy, and even the best of drivers might get into an accident. In the time that it took him to get from the master bedroom on the second floor to their main entryway, Fenton had rationally determined that this was the most likely scenario, and started to prepare to receive the news.

But what Fenton found when he unlocked and opened the door was not his expected solemn police officer. It was in fact, not a scenario that had ever crossed into his mind as one of the possibilities of a midnight knock at the door. There was not even a person. What Fenton found, was a double bassinette, holding two babies.

He knelt down quickly, frowning. Both of the babies were alive and sleeping contentedly. A glance around to locate the person who had left them revealed nothing but a pair of receding taillights, travelling down the road to leave the neighborhood. With the option of getting information through interrogation unavailable, Fenton resigned himself to the next best course of action. He picked up the bassinette and brought the children into the house and out of the cold.

He set the bassinette down on the kitchen table and looked down at the infants, gathering more information about the pair. Posing his best guess he would say that they were twins, and newborn at that. Both still wore what appeared to be a standard hospital issued onesie, one in pink, and one in blue. A folded piece of paper was sitting on the chest of the boy and, assured that their health was good, Fenton wasted little time in picking it up and unfolding it.

_To the Hardy Family, _

_I am sorry to have to surprise you like this, and to be unable to speak with you in person. The babies that have been left on your doorstep are twins born January 4__th__, 2009 at 5:15 AM and 5:19 AM at our home, with the help of a midwife from Lenox Hill Hospital . I ask that you please take care of them while I am unable to. I'm sorry that I cannot provide you with more information. Please provide these children with a loving home with a good parent. Allow him to name them, and to one day tell them all that there is to know about survival in all conditions, even avalanches. The dangers in this world are many, and they should have some preparation for all of them. Please do not scare them unnecessarily; if you have a pool, never try and fool them with a dead man's float. I've found it to be traumatizing. Thank you for following my small requests. Hopefully I will someday be found and be able to become a part of their family._

_Forever grateful, _

_S. Lewis_

After reading the note, Fenton quickly came to the conclusion that he had two very important phone calls to make. One would be to the police and the other to his youngest son.

* * *

Joe didn't like how his father had summoned him to the house without explanation. He didn't like that he had been woken up for such a summons. He didn't like that his father had insisted that there simply wasn't time to get dressed. And he didn't like the slew of police cars in the yard when he arrived after the short drive across town. There wasn't much about the situation that he did like, and as he walked past a group of officers, some of whom he recognized, in his flannel ninja turtle pajama pants, Joe resigned himself to getting to the bottom of things the moment that he came across his parents. By the time he reached his parents' kitchen, he was fully prepared for interrogation.

Then he caught sight of his mother and father standing with Chief Collig and Con Riley, and his jaw dropped. "Well, _this _isn't what I expected to find here." Both his mother and his father were holding babies, one of which, a girl if Joe was going to go by the color of outfit, was awake and giggling at his father's face. "If I had known we were going to have company I would have changed into nicer pajamas." He commented as he made his way over to wear he could see the infants closer. He started with the girl, who had a small tuft of blond hair atop her head and had sparkling hazel eyes. Joe couldn't stop the grin from crossing his face. "Well, aren't you just the cutest thing I've ever seen. I don't suppose the man holding you has an explanation as to where you came from does he?"

"We were actually hoping that you might be able to fill us in." Laura commented, clearly somewhat amused at her sons interaction with the child, but none-the-less still serious. It was a mother's talent to be able to manage both emotions at the same time. "We had a special delivery about an hour ago. They're twins. Only a few days old."

Joe took this information in. "And…whose are they?"

"Like your mom said, we were hoping that you might be able to fill us in." Con handed Joe a plastic bag, containing a slip of paper.

"I don't like what you're implying." Joe's eyes narrowed a little, although he was mostly teasing. He started to read the paper in the bag, wondering how his parents would excuse themselves of accusing him of fathering illegitimate children.

Fenton shot his son a pointed look. Had he not been holding the baby, he most likely would have crossed his arms over his chest. "We've done a little basic math. Given that the babies are so small, even for newborns, the paramedic that checked them over thinks that they're at least one month premature."

Collig took over. "We're working on getting a subpoena for the medical records to confirm this, but the process is a bit slow, since we're trying to cooperate with the NYPD and we don't have a birth certificate, or even the birth mother's full name."

"What we know for sure is that that note implies a rather personal connection to our family." Fenton paused. "Eight months ago, Frank was an absolute wreck. Sleeping with someone was the farthest thing from his mind."

Joe paused his reading and closed his eyes. He could vividly remember the entire mess. Frank had been absolutely torn apart, and quite frankly, wasn't much better now. He knew exactly what Frank was going through, and wanted nothing more than to make things right for him. He reopened his eyes, the mood most definitely darker. "Eight months ago sleeping with someone was pretty far from my mind too." He defended.

"Joe…"

"All right. Fine. I may have…had sex with someone." Joe confessed. "But these are not my kids."

"Joe…"

"Come on. Do you really think that Bess Marvin would let someone get her pregnant and not hunt the guy down to make him take responsibility?" Joe knew he had won the argument with that; everyone there knew Bess, and knew that she wasn't the type of girl that would just take something like that lying down. And despite the embarrassment of having to admit his one night stand to his parents, it really hadn't taken much to clear his name.

Reading the note, Joe could understand why everyone was thinking that the mother had a personal connection with the family. She had a confidence that they would be able to take care of the children, and give them a proper father figure. Just the same, he didn't think that he could offer much insight. "Sorry, but you called me out here for nothing."

"You don't have any ideas?" Con asked.

Joe shrugged. "Some of it seems really familiar, but…I don't know why."

Chief Collig sighed. "Well, keep thinking on it. We've taken the kids' DNA, so in the meantime we'll just have to hope that one of the parents is in the system. Not that _that_ would be a good thing." He ran a hand over his mostly bald head. "Fenton, Laura, would the two of you mind if we waited here for social services?" When both of the elder Hardys gave their consent, the Chief continued. "I'll go send out everyone else. No need for every man on the force to spend the night here."

Once Chief Collig had exited the house, and Joe had handed the note back over to con, he turned quickly to his parents. "Can I hold one of them? Please?"

Laura wasn't all that surprised at Joe's eagerness to see one of the babies; her youngest son had always had a soft spot for children. "Here. You can take this little one." She said with a soft smile, stepping forward to transfer the little boy into Joe's cradled arms. The baby shifted in sleep slightly at the movement, but didn't wake. "He's been an angel."

"Well that's no surprise, is it?" Joe cooed, looking down at the boys face. He had barely any hair at all, just a few strands that appeared to be blond. "He's such a handsome little guy." He started to slowly pace around the kitchen while Fenton and Con started to talk about the note in greater detail.

"One thing that stands out to me is the way she says good parent. Not parents." Con commented quietly. "It seems like all she wants is the father. Most random drop offs would just want a family for the kids."

Fenton started to transfer the girl into Laura's arms. "A lot of things don't fit. The thing about the avalanches…the dead man's float bit. Why would you want those things specifically?"

"It doesn't make much sense. Even if she knows your family and the…ability to run into dangerous situations, those aren't what jump to mind."

"Dead man's float…" Joe murmured mulling over the conversation. The things his father had mentioned were the same things that seemed familiar to him, but he could not figure out why. It was starting to become bothersome, but Joe quickly figured that it was going to be one of those things that didn't come to you until the most inopportune of moments. Those kinds of things tended to happen with him. As he spoke, the baby in his arms started to stir. "Well hello there. I don't suppose _you _could tell us what your mother was on it about in that crazy note of hers? No? I guess we'll just have to…" Joe trailed off as the infant's eyes opened, revealing bright blue irises, "figure it out ourselves." He finished quietly as it hit him. "Holy shit."

"Joe!" All of the adults present hissed angrily.

"I mean shoot!" Joe rapidly tried to correct himself and continued to try when that didn't make much sense in his mind. "Hell! Heck! I mean…damn…fuck." He whispered.

"Joseph Hardy!"

Joe quickly moved over to his father, who was currently the empty set of arms. "Take him please, before I corrupt him further. Con," he turned to the officer, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He nodded his head towards the living room, indicating that this was a conversation that required privacy. He didn't want his parents to know about his realization yet. Not until he was 100 percent confident that he was right.

"Sure." Con nodded, and the two quickly started walking. "What did you think of?"

"I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. I mean it's so obvious."

"What's obvious?"

"Of course it's her. When she found that body she thought it was just Frank doing a dead man's float. And there were at least two avalanches."

Con placed a hand onto Joe's shoulder. "And who is she?"

Joe stopped his pacing and looked at his friend with complete seriousness. "If I gave you a DNA sample, how quickly could you compare it the babies' and know if it's a match?"

"I thought that you said that there was no chance that these kids were yours." Con's eyes narrowed.

Joe shook his head. "There isn't. I'd be giving you someone else's DNA."

"Well, a simple comparison test like that should take our lab about a day. Why? What do you know?"

"I figured out who our note writer was. Well…the names don't match up but…If I'm right, I was just holding my nephew."

"Fuck." Con ran a hand through his hair, knowing full well the impact that this would have on the Hardy family. "Who's the mother?"

Joe hesitated slightly. This was where he would start to sound crazy, and he knew it. "Nancy."

"Nancy." Con repeated. "As in Frank's wife? That Nancy?"

"That's the one."

"Well Joe, I have to say that this is possibly your most harebrained idea yet."

"I know."

"I get that she was an amazing person, but it will have been an amazing feat for the record books if Nancy Drew managed to give birth to twins three months after being declared dead."

* * *

I'd say that's a pretty good amount of intrigue packed in there. Answers to come.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, any characters associated with them, or any pop culture references that I may choose to include.

Author's Notes: Thank you to those who took the time to review. I'm glad that this is a story idea that you can get behind, as I was a bit nervous to write it.

In regards to comments that I received about the language I chose to have the characters utilize, I'm sorry if I offended anyone with it, but I'm not going to be changing it. I have made the characters older, with different life experiences, and in my mind, the characters are not so perfect that they refuse to use profanity. Part of the beauty of fanfiction is that we as authors get to make our interpretation of what characters would be like in a given situation. It is my interpretation that this is language that would come up in the world that I have placed them in; in accordance with guidelines and my knowledge of the movie grading system, I have given this story an appropriate rating due to this decision. If you're uncomfortable with this, then perhaps you should stay with stories that have been given lower ratings.

_Italics_ are flashbacks.

* * *

"I got the sample." Joe had barely sat down in the desk in Con's office, several hours after their original discussion, before handing over the evidence bag containing Frank's toothbrush. He hadn't gone back to his apartment and slept after the events at his parents' house. It was rather unfathomable to him that it might even be possible to sleep. If he _was_ right, it would change everything. It was overwhelming evidence pointing the direction that Nancy Drew could very well still be alive, something that no one had thought was a possibility; they had held a memorial service for her months ago after spending months working non-stop to investigate her kidnapping. Furthermore, it would officially introduce two new members into the Hardy family. Sleep wouldn't have been a possibility.

Instead, Joe had waited with his parents for the social services representative to come and pick up the twins, and had then volunteered to fill Frank in on the situation. He had gone to Frank's place, mustering up all of his acting skills, determined not to let him know that he had his own suspicions about the infants' origins. If things weren't certain, Joe didn't want Frank getting his hopes up. As it was his brother had gone through the loss of the love of his life once, and if Joe was wrong, he didn't want Frank to suffer the fallout. His life was barely tenuously happy at its best moments as it was.

"You stole his toothbrush?" Con asked. Clearly, he would have been amused if it weren't for the particular heaviness of the situation.

"It has his DNA, doesn't it?" Joe defended. "I'm lucky I was able to get anything at all without him getting suspicious."

"Point taken." Con pushed his own chair away from his desk. "Let's bring this down to the lab. I don't suppose on the way down you might want to explain exactly what it is that makes you think that these are Frank and Nancy's kids."

Joe followed suit. "Well, basically it all comes back to the day that she was kidnapped."

_Joe was walking through the halls of the of the historic home that had become host to the Hardy/Drew wedding, with his bowtie untied and hanging around his neck. As the best man, he was given the task of keeping Frank calm before the big ceremony. This being almost three hours away, he had currently been delegated to make sure that things everywhere else were going smoothly. _

_He was on his way to check in with all of the women who were wrangling Nancy, when a hang closed around his bicep and pulled him roughly through the doorway that he was walking past. He grunted and immediately tensed as he was pulled into the room, instinctively drawing the held arm back and raising his other arm to fight back if need be. "Hey!"_

"_Sorry Joe." His indignation faded a bit when he saw that his attacker was none other than Nancy, who had now released his arm and was closing the door. The bride-to-be had pulled him into one of the bathrooms. She wasn't in her dress yet, but her makeup had been applied, and her strawberry blond hair was up in rollers. "Is Frank keeping you busy?"_

"_What? No 'Hey, how are you? Do you still have the rings?'" Joe joked._

_Nancy gave him a pointed look. "Joe. Not the time."_

"_Right. It's a wedding and we're serious. Which is why you've pulled me in for a covert meeting."_

"_Exactly. So is Frank giving you a ton of stuff to do?"_

"_Not really. Just checking up on things." Joe shrugged. "Your standard, calm the nervous groom stuff."_

"_So if you were gone for say…twenty minutes nobody would miss you?"_

"_Probably not. What is this---,"_

_Nancy cut him off, looking relieved. "Great. I need you to do me a favor." She dug into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a wad of cash, holding it out for Joe to take. "No one can know. And I mean nobody. Not your parents, not Bess, not my dad, and not Frank. Especially not Frank."_

_Joe looked over the money; it was over $100. "Nancy, I'm not sleeping with you. And I'm mildly offended that you think I'd take money for sex. And that you think I'm this cheap."_

_Nancy wasted no time in reaching around to the back of Joe's head and smacking it._

"_Ow!" Joe's hand went up to rub at the point of impact. "Geez. You hit harder than Frank."_

"_Could we be a little mature please?"_

"_Sorry." Joe apologized. "It's not every day that a girl pays me to do her secret favors. What is that you need me to do."_

"_I need you to go to the drugstore and buy me a pregnancy test or two."_

_Of all of the things Joe had been anticipating, a pregnancy test was not one of them. "Umm…repeat that please?"_

"_I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant. And I need to know before the reception where I'll be expected to drink a lot of champagne, but it was a miracle I was able to get out of the room at all with the way Bess is trying to make everything perfect, let alone get out of the building, so if you could run and go pick me up a couple of different tests--,"_

"_I'm going to be an uncle?"_

"_I think so."_

"_I'll…be back in ten minutes. Fifteen tops."_

Con was momentarily silenced by the story. Throughout the entire investigation, this piece of information had never come up once, even as a possibility. "You're the only one who knew?"

"As far as I know."

"And you never said anything."

Joe stopped walking, a clearly upset look on his face; he didn't like the implication, however slight it was, that somehow this piece of information would have changed the entire course of investigation. "It was hardly relevant. Nancy and I were the only ones who had any idea. It wasn't a motivator. And can you imagine the effect it would have had on everyone? Frank? Or Carson? 'By the by, I know you're devastated by the fact that your fiancée was just kidnapped, but I thought you should know that she's carrying your child.'" He mocked. "I figured even if we found her, the odds of the baby surviving whatever she had been put through were so minute that it would be cruel to plant the idea in their heads. I made the decision not to put them through that."

Con regarded his friend carefully. "But you put yourself through it."

"News like that on top of everything else would have destroyed Frank. I did what I needed to to protect my brother. He didn't need anything else to worry about. He still doesn't." Joe glanced down at his watch after he finished. "I have an appointment to get to. You'll call the moment the results get in?"

"Yeah." Con nodded. "You know I have to tell the Chief about this, right?"

"I figured. Just…keep it between the two of you, OK? I think I need to be the one to explain this to everyone if it pans out."

* * *

Frank would be the first to admit that he hadn't been on the top of his game recently when it came to solving mysteries; his heart simply hadn't been in it. Not after being unable to work out the biggest case ever placed in front of him. But he did notice that something weird had been going with Joe during his visit early that morning.

At the time, he hadn't thought much of Joe's shifty behavior, attributing it to having been up most of the night dealing with the mysterious babies that had been dropped on his parents' doorstep. Then after Joe had left, announcing that they would meet up later after an appointment, Frank had gone to have a shower, shave, and get ready for what he was sure would be a long few days trying to help the police figure out what was going on. Nothing had been amiss until he had reached the tooth-brushing portion of his morning routine. The toothbrush he had had out on the counter was missing.

"Well…that's odd." He mused. He didn't spend too much time thinking on it, opting instead to just go to his medicine cabinet, where his travel bag, complete with toothbrush rested. Frank made a mental note to bring the subject up with Joe later and was squeezing toothpaste onto the head of his other brush when the house phone rang.

Frank sighed at the interruption. He placed the toothbrush on the edge of the sink and exited the bathroom. "Hello?" He answered, picking up the receiver he kept on the hall wall.

"Frank?"

The second he heard the caller's voice, it was as though all of the air was taken out of Frank's lungs. The feminine tone was just too similar to Nancy's. Despite all logic telling him that she was gone, there were still moments when he couldn't stop his visceral reaction that the redhead across the room, or the voice that he was hearing was her. "Nancy…" It barely came out as a whisper, but he was sure that the caller still heard him. He shook his head trying to clear his thoughts but she spoke again before he could correct his mistake.

"Frank, I---I can't believe it's actually you." The voice started to thicken with tears. "I've wanted to talk to you…to see you for so long…I'm so sorry Frank."

"What are you sorry for?" He couldn't bring himself to ask the identity of who his caller was. Even past the initial voice recognition, it sounded like her. Even knowing that it couldn't possibly be Nancy, it would almost be too painful to have it be confirmed that it wasn't.

"I wanted you to be there…for everything. I wanted to go through it with you." Now the voice was sobbing, but before Frank could say anything else, he heard the sound of a door slamming and her breath hitched. "Shit! He must have realized that he left the phone. I've got to go."

"But--,"

"I love you. I love them. Just…stay strong and stay smart. For me."

Frank didn't have time to respond before she hung up. The hand holding the phone fell limply to his side, and he dizzily leaned his back against the wall, breathing heavily and unable to comprehend the situation.

Realistically, there was no way that he had just been speaking to the woman who would have been his wife. Frank knew that. But still, the tearful voice had echoed in his mind as so painfully familiar.

_The rain was coming down in sheets, plastering his hair to his forehead, but Frank refused to move from his spot standing at the foot of the steps outside of Nancy's apartment building. He had made his plan, and no matter what the weather was, he wanted to stick with it. He had gone to the top of the steps long enough to buzz Nancy's apartment, asking her to look out her window, and then quickly jogged back to his chosen spot._

_After a long moment, the window a few floors up from ground level opened and Nancy's head just barely popped out. She was clearly attempting to avoid the rain, but her eyes lit up when she saw him. "Frank! You're supposed to be flying back to Bayport. What are you doing here?"_

"_My flight got cancelled because of the storm!" He shouted back, smiling at the fact that she hadn't realized the obvious._

"_Well what are you doing down there?!" She laughed. "You have a key. Get your butt up here!"_

_Frank shook his head, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "You come down here!"_

"_Are you kidding?! It's pouring!"_

"_So?"_

"_Frank, you're going to get sick, just come up here."_

"_You come down first!"_

_It took her a minute of contemplation before she finally agreed. "Give me a second."_

_Frank waited patiently. He knew that it wasn't the most subtle approach he had ever given; Nancy obviously knew that something was going on, but between the nerves and the elation he was experiencing, it was hard for him to care._

_Eventually, his girlfriend appeared in the doorway on the top doorstep, just under the lip that would shield her from the rain. Her hair was up in a sloppy bun, to match the long sleeved tee-shirt and pajama pants she had apparently changed into upon returning from the airport. "All right Frank. I came down. Now will you come inside and get out of the rain?"_

_Frank simply shook his head. "I want a kiss first."_

"_Well then you're going to have to come to me." When Frank didn't budge she crossed her arms over her chest. "Frank, I'm in my pajamas and slippers."_

"_Nancy…" _

_She sighed, smiling, and kicked her slippers off before starting out into the rain to give into Frank's demands. "This had better be some kiss, Hardy."_

_But before she could reach him, Frank took a step back, placing himself further into the middle of the Chicago sidewalk. He pulled a small box out of his pocket, and knelt down on one knee; Nancy froze at the bottom of the steps, rain quickly starting to soak her._

"_Nancy, we've been together for nearly three years now, and despite the fact that it's been…an _entirely_ long distance relationship, I've never been happier than when I'm with you. To be honest, I've been thinking about doing this for a long time, especially these last few days, but I kept thinking that the moment wasn't right. _

"_Then my flight got cancelled, and I figure if I don't take advantage of an opportunity like this, then I'm really just a loser that Joe will mock forever so instead of just sitting in the airport, waiting for another flight I figured I had to come back and ask. Nancy Drew, will you please do me the honor of marrying me?"_

_Frank got a bit worried when Nancy didn't answer. She stood frozen with her hand to her mouth, and although the rain made it extremely difficult to notice, he could see that she was crying. "Nancy…tell me that you're crying because this is a good thing." She only nodded. "So…what does that mean? Will you marry me?"_

_The repetition of the question seemed to be enough to snap Nancy out of her stupor. "Of course I will." She answered, with a voice thick with tears. "How could you possibly think that I wouldn't? Yes! Of course. Yes!"_

_Frank pulled himself up so he was standing again, and Nancy hurried forward, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss. He wasn't sure if what he felt running down her cheeks was tears or raindrops, but he was even less sure that it mattered. He was getting married. _

It was all Frank could do to pull himself out of the memory. What he knew to be the happiest moment of his life was simply a torment to him now. But he gritted his teeth together and looked down at the phone, finally pressing the button to disconnect the original call. As he did so, he realized that at some point he had sat down on the hallway floor.

"Shit." He placed the phone on the floor next to him, and rubbed tiredly at his face. There had been a time in his life that he had thought he would never fully understand what Joe had gone through when Iola died. Now he was fully cognizant of how even a simple phone call could send his emotions into overdrive. He got it. He hated it, but he got it.

As Frank slowly regained control of his senses, he came to the conclusion that the phone call had to have some story behind it. It couldn't have been Nancy, but it was obviously someone who knew him, and judging from the hurried hang-up, was caught in some sort of bad situation. It wouldn't really have been right for him to try and ignore it just because it was painful for him to deal with.

Frank picked the phone up again, and started to dial.

"Riley."

"Hey, Con. It's Frank." He swallowed, a little surprised at how thick his voice sounded.

"Frank!" The detective sounded pretty surprised that Frank was calling him, which Frank had to assume was based on the case that he was working. "What can I do for you?"

"I know you're pretty busy with trying to find out about the twins that got left with my parents, but I just got a pretty…weird phone call and was wondering if you could look into who it may have been."

"Umm…no problem." Con answered after a moment. "We're still waiting for a lot of red tape to get cut through on the baby front so I've got a bit of time. You got the call just now?"

Frank glanced at his watch. "I guess it was probably about ten minutes ago now. It was to my house phone, not my cell."

"OK. I'll call the phone company to get the number." Con confirmed. "What exactly was the call?"

Frank hesitated; he didn't know exactly how to explain it without sounding a bit crazy. "I'm not entirely sure. It was hard to understand her. But she kept saying my name, and hung up really quickly after a door slammed." It was close enough to the truth.

"All right. I'll give you a call when I get something from the phone company."

"Thanks Con."

* * *

Joe was getting behind the wheel of his car when his cell phone rang. "Joe here." He continued buckling his seatbelt and putting his keys in the ignition, but didn't actually start the car.

"I have two questions for you."

"I'm positive that they're not my kids, Frank." Joe quickly responded to his brother's statement. Although he knew that this was not likely one of the questions that Frank had, he was certain that the thought had, as it had with his parents, crossed his brother's mind.

"Actually, my questions are completely unrelated to the babies."

"OK, then. Go." Joe leaned back in his seat, officially curious as to where this was going.

"First of all…why did you take my toothbrush?"

It wasn't the question that Joe was expecting. "Umm…" He hadn't thought of an excuse to give should Frank put two and two together.

"Don't tell me you were actually too lazy to go to a store to buy one so you just decided to grab mine this morning."

It sounded good to him. "Actually…you caught me. You know me too well, Frank."

Frank sighed. "Whatever." Joe was surprised, but apparently Frank's second question was important enough to cause him to skip the typical 'Joe, be a bit more mature' lecture. "My second question is…can you think of a woman who would call me, crying, and have to hang up because someone else showed up?"

"A crying woman called you?" The red flags were flying to attention in Joe's mind; it was almost as though the universe wanted to prove to him that he was right. "What did she say?"

"That she was sorry, because she wanted me to be there. That she loved me…and them. But she didn't say who 'they' were." Frank paused. "Joe…I know it's going to sound crazy, but for a moment, it really sounded like Nancy."

"It's…not that crazy." Joe reluctantly admitted. He hoped that the comment only came off as comforting and wouldn't give Frank ideas; things still weren't definite in the slightest. "Everything's still so recent, it's natural that things remind you of her."

"I know."

There was a long pause. "So do you have any ideas about who it was?"

"That's why I called you. I already called Con and he's working on getting the number from the phone company but--,"

Frank's words were cut off by Joe's phone beeping. "Hold on a sec, Frank. I've got another call." He waited for his brother to acknowledge it before switching to the other phone call. "Hardy."

"Joe, it's Con. I have the test results."

Joe's mouth went dry; it was the moment of truth. "Give me one second." He switched back over to Frank's line. "Frank, I'm sorry, this call is really important. I'm going to have to call you back." This time he didn't wait to hear Frank agree, he simply disconnected the call. He took a deep breath before going back to Con. "OK. Let me have it."

* * *

Thoughts?


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the characters associated with them, or any pop culture references that I may choose to include.

Author's Notes: Thank you to those who have read and taken the time to review. It makes me really happy to know that you like and appreciate my work.

In regards to updates, I am in school, but as it's college I have a bit more free time than I used to, so I'm aiming for an update per week. Hopefully this will work out, but if it doesn't please be flexible, as school does have to come first.

_Italics_ are flashbacks.

* * *

Chapter Two

"_Frank, we need to talk. Meet me at the park in half an hour?"_

Frank leaned on his elbows on the footbridge that crossed the small pond located towards center of Bayport's park. Joe had called him nearly twenty minutes ago, insisting on meeting face to face to talk. Frank didn't know if it had anything to do with the mysterious phone call he had received that morning, the babies that had been left on his parents' doorstep, or something else entire; Joe hadn't been clear other than to say that they had to talk.

He had reached his destination some five minutes earlier and was now waiting on his brother's arrival and trying to ignore the cold of the winter air, but he wasn't entirely hopeful that Joe would be on time. Over the years, Joe had developed the habit of giving someone a meeting time, and consistently arriving at least ten minutes late. Sometimes it was for a legitimate, case-related, reason, but more often than note, Joe refused to explain himself.

Frank sighed, scanning across the park. Joe was nowhere in sight.

"Hey."

Frank nearly jumped when his brother's hand clapped down on his shoulder. Joe was nowhere in sight because Joe was behind him. He nodded as his brother slid into place next to him. "Hey." But after his greeting, Joe didn't say anything; he just stared out across the pond. "So…"

"So…" Joe echoed.

"You wanted to talk about something?" Frank prompted.

"Right." Joe sighed. "That." Still, he didn't explain anything, and it was then that Frank realized his brother was nervous about what it was that he had to say. Again, it wasn't entirely out of the norm for Joe anymore (a lot had changed in the past year), but something had to be pretty important to work him up.

"What is it Joe?"

"You know how earlier you asked me why I took your toothbrush?" Joe waited for Frank to nod before continuing. "Well…I lied when I said it was because I didn't want to go to the store to get one for myself."

Frank couldn't help it. He laughed. Even now it didn't seem as though Joe would be apprehensive over something as simple as a stolen toothbrush. "Is that what this is about? Joe, it's a toothbrush. We'll all survive. If it's really bothering you all that much just give me a couple of bucks so I can replace it."

"This isn't about the toothbrush." Joe corrected. "Well it is, but…it has to do with why I took it." Frank just gave him a blank look, so continued. "I gave it to Con so he could run a DNA test."

"What? You've decided we're not really brothers or something?" Frank was joking, but he frowned when he saw his brother's completely serious face.

"Maybe we should go sit down."

"We…are brothers, aren't we?"

Joe nodded. "Yeah. We're brothers. The test was to compare your DNA to the babies'. And…the test came back with the conclusion that…you're their father."

Frank was momentarily stunned into silence. "I'm sorry, I could have sworn that you just said that I'm their father."

"Yeah. About that…" Joe ran a hand through his hair, standing straight. "Frank, there's something that you should know. When Nancy was kidnapped…she was pregnant." Frank didn't say anything right away, so Joe took that as his license to continue. "She had just taken a test and found out about it. At the time, I didn't want to bring it up because I thought it would only make things worse, but now…Frank, do you realize what this means? It's possible…highly likely even…that Nancy's still alive."

"No." Frank murmured quietly, shaking his head. "No. Nancy's dead."

"Frank,"

"We had a funeral Joe. Three months ago."

"I know. There was no reason for us to think that she was alive. But now we know that, at the very least, she was alive a few days ago to give birth. And I think she called you this morning. You said yourself that you thought it was her."

"Because I miss her!" Frank's eyes flashed. "Everything reminds me of her. That doesn't mean she's still alive."

"But this time was different, wasn't it?" When Frank didn't answer, Joe continued. "You and I both know that DNA doesn't lie. Those kids are your son and daughter, my niece and nephew. And Nancy's ali--," Joe's words flew out of his mouth and a bright light exploded behind his eyes as Frank's fist collided with his jaw. He had to thrust his hands out quickly to catch on the footbridge railing, and not go over the edge onto the icy pond from the momentum. He paused a moment to regain his surroundings, but he didn't retaliate. "You feel a bit better now?"

"You had _no right_ to keep this from me." Frank informed, shaking his fist out. "It may not have changed anything, but you had absolutely no right."

"I thought that I was--," Joe thought better of this statement and stopped himself. At this point what he said wasn't going to make a difference. "I know. I'm sorry. Are we gonna be OK?"

Frank nodded quietly. "Yeah." It was too much to process. Nancy was alive. Almost even more shocking, he was a father. Given the circumstances he figured he was reacting remarkably well by only punching Joe once and not passing out or throwing up, but that was really all that he could manage. Even with some sort of preparation, this wasn't the type of news that left you feeling the same as you were before you heard it. "Does anyone else know yet?"

"Just me, you, Con, and Chief McGinnis. I asked them to let me tell you first. When we're done here, I'll call them, and then they're going to get to work making all of the other calls. They'll also really put the push on NYPD to get to work on finding that midwife."

"And the twins?"

"I'm not sure. I'd guess that they'll get pulled from the group home they got put in this morning and go to you."

"Me?" Frank barely choked out.

"You're the father. So unless you know of some reason why you _can't_ take care of them, it only makes sense."

"Yeah…I guess so."

"And I'm sure mom and dad will be more than willing to help you out, until we find Nancy and everything gets resettled." Joe added, making quick note of Frank's glaringly obvious unease with the idea. "And I'll go shopping with you to get all of the supplies. Don't worry. You're not doing this alone."

Frank shook his head. "No."

Joe frowned. "No, what? No, you don't want mom and dad to help? Or no, you don't want my baby supply expertise?"

"No, I can't take care of them." Frank corrected, taking a step back from the railing.

"Frank they're your kids." Joe protested.

"And mom and dad's grandkids. And your niece and nephew. Hell, I'm sure when Carson gets the phone call he'll be on the red eye out and he'd love to take care of them. So let him, let mom and dad, you can take care of them if you want to, but I can't."

"Frank--,"

"You don't get to lecture me on this Joe."

"But--,"

"But nothing! This isn't something that I asked for, and it's not something that I'm ready to deal with. Exactly how would you feel if I just came up to you out of the blue and told you that it wasn't Iola who was killed in the car bombing? And just handed you a couple of kids saying, 'here you go, _Dad_, they're all yours'?"

"That's a little different Frank."

"Whatever. I'm just…I'm going to go away for a few days."

"What? You're just going to run away?"

"I need some time to think about this, Joe. This isn't something that I can just process and be done with in just a few minutes. I thought that Nancy was gone. Dead. I closed that chapter of my life. And even if I hadn't, we had never planned on kids. This is the farthest out of left field you can possibly get. I need some time, _alone_, to figure things out."

Joe swallowed, realizing that nothing he could say was going to change Frank's mind in this moment. "Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know. Somewhere that's not here."

"Fair enough, I guess." Joe muttered. "What do you want me to tell everyone?" It was unspoken that the truth was not going to be an option, and as Frank's brother, it was his duty to cover for him, at least within reason. Joe had already made the decision that if this trip lasted more than a few days it was crossing the line of reason and, barring being consumed with finding Nancy, he would tell everyone exactly what Frank had done and they would hunt him down together.

"I don't know."

"Helpful."

"You'll think of something. Do me a favor and don't call, OK? I'll send you an e-mail when I get…wherever it is I'm going to let you know that I'm safe."

Joe nodded. "If we find her…?"

"Tell her I love her, that's not going to change." Frank paused. "I'll be back eventually. I'm sorry I punched you."

Joe watched as Frank turned and started to walk away. His brother was almost off the bridge before he spoke. "Hey Frank."

Frank spun back around. "Yeah?"

"For what it's worth, I think that you _can_ do this."

"Thanks, Joe." He half-smiled, shaking his head. "But I'm still going." He turned again, continuing on his way."

"Figures." As his brother left, Joe brought a hand up to massage his now, throbbing jaw. He looked out across the pond. This wasn't the way that he had anticipated things going. "All right, Joe. How are you going to fix this?"

* * *

Nancy cut her plain chicken into small pieces, and ate it, along with her corn and dinner roll in complete silence. The meal was entirely bland in comparison to what she had prepared for the man sitting across the table from her; he had gotten haddock with white sauce and several other side dishes. But per his rules, she got the chicken.

"You're becoming a much better cook, dear."

She glanced up at him long enough to glare briefly, but didn't respond. Although it was his desire that they hold polite conversation when eating at the dining room table, as they did for every breakfast and dinner, she had made her stance on the issue very clear. Nancy was not going to speak at the table until he stopped restraining her. Every time they sat down to eat, she was placed in the chair that was bolted to the floor, and a rope was tied around her arms and chest, binding her to the seat back. She couldn't reach for anything, and she certainly couldn't attempt to do anything to harm him. While his own dark eyes were piercing into hers, almost daring her to respond, she popped another piece of chicken into her mouth.

"I mean, the fish is actually cooked all the way through this time. How's your chicken?"

Silence followed. If he thought that discussing how bad of a cook she was was the way to inspire conversation he was certainly mistaken. Especially given that she had spent much of her time cooking, purposefully sabotaging the recipes, knowing that it wasn't what she would be having.

"You know, things would go much more smoothly if you'd at least try to enjoy yourself dear."

He was trying to mold her into the perfect housewife. He'd been trying since day one. For the most part, he wasn't terribly violent, which confused Nancy. Still, she tended to pick her battles wisely, especially in the previous eight months, when it wasn't simply her life at stake.

"Well, I don't know how you get your rocks off, but I'm not the type of girl who goes for being tied up." She finally commented in a smooth tone. After eight months of captivity, Nancy was simply too tired and disheartened to muster up anger. The situation was what it was, and for all her trying to get out of it, being angry wasn't going to do anything.

"Please forego the vulgarities, dear. You know that we're above them." He paused. "I suppose now that you're speaking with me, it would be a good time to have our discussion. Are you finished with your meal?"

Nancy quickly decided to go back to not speaking. She knew exactly what this discussion was, and that things were about to get ugly. She did, however, place her fork down on the plate, knowing that no matter what her answer would have been, meal time was over.

"Very well then." He stood, and walked over to behind her chair, beginning to work at the knots of her bindings. "You'll clear the table later on tonight. We have other business to attend to." He pulled the rope from up around her form, and grabbed onto one hand to guide her away from the dining room. They went down the hall, stopping when they reached the doorframe of the stairs that would lead up to the attic. "Remove your shoes."

She slipped out of the pumps that she was to wear around the house, leaving her feet bare, and he prodded her to go up the stairs. Nancy walked as slowly as she thought she could get away with, knowing that what was coming wasn't going to be pleasant. About as far from it as you could get. As they went up stairs, he spoke again.

"You realize that you picked a _very_ bad day to disobey me, dear. It's been a week since you were in labor. What was the deal that we made when you first came here?"

Nancy made the decision to respond, wondering if following his rules now would make things any easier. "We agreed that throughout the pregnancy, you would withhold punishments for any infractions so no harm would come to the child. Children." She corrected herself. "You would give me a week after I went into labor to recover, and then you would act on all punishments." At the time, the deal had seemed perfect; it kept her children safe, and herself relatively free from harm as well. Nancy had never anticipated that she wouldn't have been rescued within a few days of her initial kidnapping, let alone long enough to last through the entire pregnancy.

"Very good. Now, I don't expect you to remember eight months worth of infractions, although you may rest assured that I have kept good record of them so that not a one will go unpunished, I would like you to tell me what it was that you did today that was completely inappropriate."

They reached the attic landing. Boxes and cabinets were neatly organized along the walls, but the center was largely free space. Wooden support beams criss-crossed along the ceiling. There wasn't a speck of dust to be seen.

"When you left the phone with me this morning, I used it to call…someone."

"Who did you call?" Nancy didn't answer. "If you don't tell me, I'll be forced to assume the worst. You're only making things harder on yourself."

"It was Frank."

"Thank you. That wasn't too hard, was it?" He grabbed onto her hand again, leading her to the center of the room. "You know, if this relationship is going to work, we're going to need to build mutual trust." He turned to one of the cabinets, opening it and searching through its contents. "Now, I have given you every reason to trust me. I made this deal with you, and I helped facilitate returning the children to their family…all so we could have a fresh start now, as a new family. Have I ever gone back on my word, dear?" He turned back around, and Nancy saw that he had take out a pair of handcuffs.

"No." He closed one of the cuffs around her right wrist, cinching the metal as tight as it would go. This arm was lifted and stretched so he could loop the cuffs over a support beam.

"Exactly." Her left arm was lifted and cuffed in the same manner. "Which is why it's all the more disheartening that you continuously choose to disobey me. I hope that this punishment will be enough to dissuade you from any future acts of misconduct."

The beam was high enough above her that in order to take any pressure off of her shoulders, Nancy had to stand on her tip-toes. Even then, there was a straining pain that radiated from the joints.

"In fact, I'm confident that it will." She felt his hands at her back, and then the sensation of her back being exposed to the chilly attic air as her dress was unzipped. The zipper went the entire length of the dress, and when he was done, although her front was still covered, the only thing that protected her modesty from the angle he was viewing was her underwear. "Please remember, dear, that I don't want to hurt you." It was entirely disheartening to Nancy how calm and level his voice was. "You brought this upon yourself by choosing to break the rules. This punishment is for your own good. I hope you understand that." In the pause, Nancy thought she heard him turn away, presumably to take something else out of the cabinet.

"I won't be having you count the lashes." This comment officially answered the question of what her punishment would be. He was going to whip her. "I will explain each infraction before you receive the punishment for it. We will start with the issues from today and work our way backwards. You may cry out, if it helps you to deal with the pain."

Nancy clenched her teeth together trying to prepare herself for what was to come. She had never been more determined not to scream then in that moment.

"These first few are for your phone call this morning."

For one reason or another, it surprised Nancy that she could hear the whip whistle through the air as it came towards her, and in the moment before impact, it almost seemed as though everything was moving in slow motion. Then the line collided with her shoulders. At the fiery impact, her eyes clenched shut and her body instinctively swung forward, partly in momentum, partly in an attempt to escape the next swing. When the next blow still came, this time stinging lower on her back, she moved her teeth so she was biting her lip, and quickly began trying to think of something else; she knew if she was going to get through this, she had to be anywhere but there.

_It had been one of those days when nothing had gone right until the very last second, and even then, calling what had happened right was debatable. Everything that could have gone wrong with their case did, and it was only through sheer determination that Frank and Nancy hadn't drowned in the raging river, instead staying afloat long enough to arrive at a shore, miles away from where they had started with no supplies, and no way to get to help. Surely, no one thought that they would have survived._

"_Any luck?"Frank asked as Nancy returned to their makeshift campsite. As the healthier of the two, she had been elected to go search for anything they might be able to eat; her turn in the rapids had left her plenty of bruises, a jagged cut on her forehead, and a broken wrist, but Frank had gone in with her, refused to let go, and attempted to shield her from as many of the rocks as he could, leaving him with more bruises, more specifically bruised ribs, and knee that was almost certainly going to need surgery judging from the way that it was swelling. In the meantime, his mission had been to attempt to start a fire with the Swiss Army Knife that had somehow made it through their trip in the rapids, and he had just managed to have his own success in that area._

_Nancy shook her head. "Nothing but stuff that I know is poisonous. And I didn't want to go too far. It'll be dark soon. It looks like we'll just have to deal without it."She gestured to his work. "At least you got a fire going." The fire was a necessity, not only for light and heat at night, but to dry them off as well; they were both still soaked to the bone from the river. "Do we have enough wood to keep it going?"_

"_For now." Frank nodded. "Come sit down." He patted a section of the log that he sat on, and watched as she gingerly made her way over. "How's the head?"_

"_Good enough." At his pointed look she sighed. "Throbbing." She admitted. "But I really don't see the point in complaining about it, because there's nothing we can do. Our bags—and Davis—," she tacked on somewhat bitterly, "are long gone by now."_

"_Any dizziness or double vision?"_

"_I don't have a concussion. What about your ribs? Is your breathing any worse?"_

"_No. I'm sure they're just bruised."_

"_Well that's a relief. Given our current lack of supplies I doubt that I could have MacGyver-ed a chest tube up for you if a stray rib pierced your lung." Having a darker sense of humor was a side effect of being exhausted when you'd gone through everything that they had together._

"_You would have tried though. And the thought is certainly appreciated."_

"_Can you imagine the news headlines if they rescued us then?" Nancy smiled. "19-year-old amateur detective with no formal medical training saves the life of another 19-year-old using combined techniques from a beloved fictional 1980's secret agent and watching Grey's Anatomy."_

"_And you wouldn't even have that much to work with if I hadn't made you sit down and watch it."_

"_I know Hardy. I owe all of my medical knowledge to your…bizarre obsession with Grey's Anatomy."_

"_Hey! Not all of us like to spend all of our time solving mysteries and then sit down for Law and Order marathons. Some of us like a break from all the action and suspense."_

"_I didn't say it was a bad thing. I just said it was bizarre. I never would have expected it from you." Nancy gingerly leaned her head against Frank's shoulder. "And for the record, you're much better looking than McDreamy."_

_It was something that she had always teased Frank about. He had gotten into, and consequently introduced her to the show a few months ago when they had both been single and in the full-force flirting, but not quite ready to date stage of their relationship. It was a constant game to claim that Frank couldn't quite measure up to the doctors of Seattle Grace. For Nancy to bring it up now, and saying what she actually thought put a bit of a damper on the light mood they had been building. _

_Frank frowned, even though in their current position, she couldn't see him. "What makes you say that now?"_

"_I thought you should know. Just in case."_

_There wasn't much question as to what she was referring. He leaned away so his girlfriend was forced to sit up straight once more. "First of all," he started, regarding her quite seriously, "we've been in far worse situations than this and made it out alive, so you can stop with the negativity. Second, even if we weren't going to make it out of this, which we _are_, we have a lot of time before we get to the part where we get all serious. You know as well as I do that any big heartfelt confessions come way later. We're pros at this by now, don't start going all amateur on me just because started to date." He teased._

_Nancy laughed. "You may have a point there."_

"_I _do_ have a point there." He corrected. "And third, you should remember that no matter what the situation, the only way I'm not getting you out of it alive is if I'm gone. And clearly, I'm not gone."_

_Nancy leaned forward and kissed her boyfriend. There wasn't much else to say._

Nancy was surprised to find herself sobbing when she came back to reality. Her back felt as though it was on fire, and couldn't tell for sure because of the pain, but she wouldn't be surprised to find blood dripping from the lashes. He was releasing her wrists from the hand cuffs. Clearly, the punishment was over.

The moment both of her wrists were free her legs crumpled beneath her, too weak to support her weight, but he was prepared and caught her by the elbows. She landed, still sobbing, with her face to his chest.

"There, there, dear. I know it hurts, but it's making you a better person. You'll appreciate this when it's all said and done. Now, let's go get you cleaned up, and then you can finish your evening chores."

* * *

Thoughts?


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